Can you claim for industrial deafness?

When talking about injuries in the workplace, most people first think of easily visible injuries such as broken bones, cuts or burns. However, sometimes injuries that are caused in the workplace can fly under the radar without showing symptoms – in some cases, even for several years after the incident.

One such condition is industrial deafness – a form of hearing loss caused by long term exposure to noise in the workplace. In many cases, people reach retirement before noticing the damage done to their hearing. Unfortunately, it’s often the case that even when the hearing loss is identified, it’s written off as the natural effect of ageing without realising that it stems from excessive noise exposure in the workplace years previously.

However, it’s important to realise that your employer could still be liable for the effects your work has had on your long term health. Employers have a legal and moral duty to ensure your health is taken care of while you’re at work, even if the problem doesn’t arise or become clear until after you’ve left their company. Therefore, if you work in an environment that could be damaging to your hearing, your employer must make sure you have protective equipment and that you take regular breaks from that environment, all to protect and preserve your hearing.

Hearing loss might seem like an inevitability, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t claim compensation if you experience deafness as a result of improper working conditions. Suffered by many, hearing loss can have a big impact on your day-to-day life, including effects on your mental health and social wellbeing. If you think that your loss of hearing was caused or exacerbated by your working conditions either in the present or past, then you may be entitled to make a claim for industrial deafness compensation.

What is industrial deafness and how does it develop?

Though we often take it for granted, our hearing is facilitated by a complex and delicate interaction between the intricate workings of the ear and the brain. Unfortunately, this means it is susceptible to damage, and exposure to loud sounds can have detrimental effects. Even quieter noises, such as those at 85 decibels for example, can be harmful if experienced for a long period of time.

For example, some people who work in call centres develop what’s known as an acoustic shock due to their exposure to high pitched, high intensity sounds often heard through telephones or headsets. This and other forms of industrial noise exposure can lead to hearing loss in as little as two years – although typically it takes longer for you to notice the hearing loss. Because of this, you might not even realise you’re losing your hearing until it starts to have a big impact on your life.

As well as deafness, which can cause noises to sound muffled and make it difficult to distinguish consonant sounds in speech, hearing damage can also lead to a condition known as tinnitus. Tinnitus is characterised by hearing seemingly innocuous sounds that don’t originate from an outside source. For example, you might hear whooshing, ringing or buzzing in your ears without there being anything around you that could cause such a noise.

Tinnitus is not always serious and can sometimes come about for other reasons, such as an ear infection or taking a certain medication. However, where tinnitus is loud, incessant or otherwise disturbs your day-to-day life (and particularly your sleep schedule), it can have a big impact that can cause serious physical and psychological symptoms, as well as a poor quality of life.

Employers have a responsibility to protect their employees from any kind of expected damage, injury or illness that could be caused by their working conditions, and hearing loss is no exception. For example, if the noise levels in your workplace are regularly over 80 dB, or peak at over 135dB, your employer is duty-bound to take measures to reduce exposure to that noise. This could include reducing noise levels and providing protective equipment, as well as educating employees and visitors to the workplace about the dangers of excessive noise exposure.

In situations where your employer has failed to perform their duties to protect you from hearing damage, resulting in hearing loss or related issues, you may be eligible to claim for industrial deafness compensation.

Are you showing symptoms of industrial deafness?

The first symptoms of hearing loss may include any or all of the following:

• Inability to follow some parts of the conversation
• Inability to hear clearly in an environment where there is background noise
• Needing to turn the TV or radio volume up in order to follow a program.

How to claim for industrial deafness

In order to make a successful industry deafness compensation claim, you must follow certain guidelines, which include the following:

1. You need to have your deafness or hearing loss established by consulting with a suitable medical professional, who will confirm through a detailed report the severity of the condition.
2. You must also be able to prove that the hearing problems were a consequence of the work environment. In view of this, you must collect evidence, including witness statements from workmates, regarding the workplace conditions.
3. You must contest that your employer(s) could have foreseen the hearing injuries, considering the continual exposure to noise in the workplace.
4. You must successfully show the negligence of your employers with regard to their insufficient or ineffective efforts in protecting you from noise in the workplace.

There are a number of factors that must be put into consideration for every potential compensation claim, and one of which is the severity of the condition. The claimant’s circumstances and levels of pain and suffering will affect the amount of compensation that they will receive. Is the claimant suffering from complete or partial hearing loss? Are both ears affected, and is tinnitus present? To get a better understanding of how much compensation you could receive, get an estimate from our personal injury claims calculator.

It’s also worth noting that your claim will be subject to time limits – though that doesn’t prevent you from making a claim against a company you worked for years ago. In the majority of circumstances, you will have three years from the time you become aware of a possible link between your hearing loss and the work in question in which to begin your claim.  

Industrial hearing loss claims can be complex, particularly if the inciting conditions occurred many years ago. To give yourself the best possible chances of success, it’s worth speaking to a qualified legal professional about the merits of your claim. Here at Compare Compensation Claims, you can compare the services and qualifications of some of the top UK industrial disease and illness solicitors to find the right one for you so you can move forwards with your industrial deafness claim.